Bobby Rehm will look to get another shot at states next year
Unfortunately the saying, “all good things must come to an end” was proven true for Penn Manor wrestler Bobby Rehm.
Rehm entered the PIAA state tournament after winning his second straight section title in the AAA class with a 36-4 record.
The junior was defeated in the first round of states on Thursday, March 11 to Bethel Park’s sophomore, Dylan Morgan who had a 23-1 record entering the tournament.
Rehm, who was in the 125 weight class, was defeated 5-4 after he was tilted in the third period ultimately causing his defeat.
Being only a junior, Rehm will continue his dominance next year in the LL league in his quest for another run at states.
Baladash Melanore, or in other words, greetings! The land of epic goodness starts here in the World of Warcraft. The game boasts 11.5 million players worldwide, and Penn Manor has little immunity to the infection.
“I play [World of Warcraft] at least 4 hours a day,” says Brandon Kauffman, a senior. “WoW is important enough that when I’m at school, I think about it.”
Blizzard Entertainment released World of Warcraft, often referred to as ‘WoW ‘ on September 2, 2001 and the company is coming out with a new expansion (addition) to WoW called Cataclysm and adding two new characters later this year. It can only increase the game’s standing since WoW is currently the worlds most subscribed MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game).
Many people don’t understand why WoW is so appealing to others, or why they play this game in the first place. But Sean Brunner, a sophmore here at Penn Manor, knows exactly why.
Sean Brunner promotes kids at Penn Manor to play World of Warcraft. Photo by Gabby Myers.
“Roughly, I play WoW 8-9 hours a day,” says Brunner. ” Playing Wow is like a hobby, but it’s really my only hobby. If it were taken away it would make me feel sad.
“It’s so appealing because you can do whatever you want and there’s no consequences,” Brunner concluded.
For those of you who are “n00bs” and aren’t familiar with WoW, there are two sides to this world: the Alliance and the Horde. The Alliance has characters such as Humans, Draenei, Dwarfs, Gnomes, and Night Elves. On the Horde, there are the Undead, Taurens, Orcs, Trolls, and Blood Elves. On top of all of these characters, a class needs to be chosen. A class is the style of a player and it determines the type of weapons and armor the player can use, as well as abilities. The classes are Warriors, Mages, Druids, Death Knights (newest added character), Hunters, Warlocks, Priests, Paladins, Rogues, and Shaman. You’re confused? Maybe this explanation will help.
A new world does await.. for more players. Photo by Gabby Myers
The demon-corrupted Orcs of Burning Legion destroyed many Human neighborhoods and killed a lot of Humans. When the Burning Legion was defeated, the surviving Orcs were put into concentration camps and forced into slavery until their liberation/escape to Kalimandor. Trolls and Humans have been fighting territorial wars since the beginning of their shared histories. When the Orcs came to Kalimandor, a group of them started logging a portion of Ashenvale (Alliance town), and fought and killed Cenarius, a defender of the forests there. This caused conflict and is the reason why the Alliance and the Horde hate each other. There’s more to the story on www.worldofwarcraft.com.
World of Warcraft might sound like the average game to others, but it’s very different. WoW has it’s own terminology and language which is what separates it from other games. The Alliance cannot communicate with the Horde and vice-versa.
“The neat thing about WoW is it’s realistic and not just a video game. There’s every age, race and sex playing. You can always find a friend if you spam something in trade chat,” Sean Brunner said.
One student said that they skipped at least four or five days of school just to stay home and play WoW.
“It can destroy your life, or make it happier,” said Peter Weidinger, another student here at Penn Manor.
But will you give in? Will you join the World of Warcraft? You decide.
Acceptance letters may come in small envelopes, but the debt that comes with them is much greater.
Penn Manor seniors are preparing to go off to college next fall, but rising tuition rates for the majority of universities have already been causing stress.
As four of the five most popular college choices of Penn Manor students are increasing their tuition, applicants have to find more ways to earn the extra money.
But were students even aware that the cost was increasing?
“I had no idea,” said senior Zach Levenson, “But I still want to go. West Chester is a great school.”
West Chester University Photo Credit to Daviscrossfield.com
West Chester University will be increasing its tuition cost from $12,229 to $12,704 this year, making a 3.8 increase.
However, Levenson has a plan.
“I’m applying for student loans and scholarships this month. Hopefully it’ll work out.”
Some seniors don’t have to worry about this increasing cost though.
“[The increase] didn’t really matter to me. My parents are paying for all of it.” said Mike Cotich.
Although, if you’re not like Cotich or Levenson, there are other ways to finding a method to pay for college.
“Financial Aid Night is a good thing to do,” said guidance counselor James Yearsley, “but there are always other things you can do.”
Yearsley recommends helpful websites such as collegeboard.com, educationplanner.org, and the guidance office’s Moodle page.
“Besides need-based scholarships, kids should take the time to go to the websites that ask for essays. That’s where there will not be as much competition, because if it takes extra work most kids will stay away.”
And Yearsley stated that this “probably won’t be changing any time soon.”
“There are extra cost of things like air conditioning in dorms, higher quality food, and even some laundry services. These weren’t around years ago, and it causes the cost to go up,” said Yearsley.
Penn Manor’s top five most popular colleges to attend are no exception.
Penn State and West Chester have already increased their tuition, while Millersville and Temple will announce their increases over the summer.
Pittsburgh University is the only school that is actually lowering its cost of tuition, in an effort to help students cope with the struggle of paying for college.
While college may be emptying your piggy bank, there’s still ways to save every penny you can.
Welcome to the third edition of PM Nation by Cody Straub and Taylor Groff. This week’s column is about what arguably the best college football player, Tim Tebow, will do in the National Football League.
Cody Straub: Tim Tebow will have a successful NFL career because of his passion and love for the game of football. I am making a bold prediction that if Tebow is drafted by the right team, he will win rookie of the year playing in his own wildcat offense.
Taylor Groff: Not even close, Cody. Tebow seems like he has a lot of love for the game, but I don’t think he is an NFL quarterback. I respect what he did at Florida where he captured two national titles under Urban Meyer. There is just one problem. He seems to have figured out that he needs to change almost every aspect of his game to show NFL scouts he can throw the ball.
CS: Taylor, he is not changing his whole game, he is just tweaking his arm motion to make his release a little quicker. This kid does not accept failure, and doesn’t fail. Everybody is forgetting that he won a Heisman Trophy and two national championships. They think because he is not an “NFL style” quarterback he will not be successful. He is a proven winner at every level of competition he has played at.
Cody Straub Co-editor for PM Nation
TG: When a player has to tweak something a week before the NFL combine that’s not a good sign. He is now taking three and five step drops instead of the shotgun format he ran in Florida.
CS: Taylor, I said the right team, not some idiots who take away his unique style he brings to a team.
TG: His delivery is awful and he takes way too much time to get rid of the ball. You are also right about people forgetting about his Heisman and the two championships because people are more worried about his possible failure in the NFL.
CS: Everybody makes the mistake of writing him off. Coming into college all the scouts were saying he is not a good enough thrower to be a good college quarterback. In his amazing four college career Tebow had 88 passing touchdowns and 9,285 passing yards. Pretty good for a guy whose throwing ability everyone questioned.
TG: I want to clear this up with everyone. I believe that Tim’s college career was probably one of the best in NCAA history. Even though he had a highly successful college career I still believe he is not ready for the NFL. He hasn’t proven to anyone he can throw the ball.
Taylor Groff Co-editor for PM Nation
CS: Obviously you are thinking too hard about how to bash Tebow instead of understanding my point. Tebow succeeds even if nobody else thinks he will.
TG: I have one question to you though, being completely honest, do you think Tim Tebow can throw the ball well enough against NFL defenses?
CS: Yes, Tim Tebow is a good enough passer to go against NFL defenses. With his long throwing motion, he was able to dominate the best defenses in college football. He has already made huge strides in changing his arm motion for a quicker release. No, Taylor he isn’t changing his whole game he is changing his throwing motion a little bit to have more success. I just have one last question for you, how can you or anyone hate Tim Tebow? Is it because he is a great role model or that he has a Heisman and two national championships?
TG: My point is Tim is, without a doubt, a great role model but he will be known as the two-time national title winner and that’s it.
CS: Alright that’s all we got, just remember this column next season when Tebow is dominating the NFL.
TG: I would like to give a shout out to the Uconn Huskies women for breaking the division one record with 72 W’s in a row.
One of the most anticipated events of the year is upon us as Penn Manor’s spring musical draws its curtains.
Starting Thursday, March 11, Penn Manor will host their annual show to the community at 7:30 p.m. This year’s musical is a reproduction of the recent Broadway musical, Curtains. Just two and a half years after it debuted on Broadway, Penn Manor will become the first High School in Lancaster County to reproduce this young musical.
The show is a “show within a show,” set in 1950s Boston. It is centered on a Broadway-bound musical with hopes of making it big, until their leading female role is mysteriously murdered. The cast attempts to balance solving the murderer with preparing their own show in this musical-comedy.
Curtains is Penn Manor's musical this spring. Photo by Andrew Zell
“Curtains is a spoof on other musicals,” said Melissa Telesco, co-director of the musical. “Our characters are overdramatic on purpose”
For those who may be skeptical about going to see a musical, there seems to be a general agreement that Curtains has more to offer than simply song and dance.
Choreographer and Penn Manor junior Jill Wiley said, “It’s a comedy, it pokes fun at many different Broadway musicals.”
Curtains will be open to the community starting Thursday at 7:30 PM. Photo by Andrew Zell
“It’s very funny,” said assistant director Melissa Mintzer. “You don’t have to be a ‘musical person’ to understand the jokes.”
Tickets are on sale this week in the cafeteria during all lunches for shows on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and a 2:00 p.m. matinee on Saturday. Tickets are $5 for students and $7 for adults at lunches and increase a dollar in price at the door. All seats are reserved, so it is advised to buy tickets for groups at one time.
Thursday night’s boys basketball game at Cedar Crest High School was for a spot in states for either Daniel Boone or Penn Manor.
Boone’s senior guard, Tyler Brooks, was shut down scoring only four points all night. His season average is 18.3 points which is second in the Berks conference.
Penn Manor’s Patrick Welsh scored seven first half points leading the Comets to a 13-point lead, late in the second quarter.
Boone ended the half with an eight-point run to cut the deficit within five at half.
The Blazers came within two points of Penn Manor near the end of the third quarter but couldn’t capitalize.
Welsh led all Comet scorers with 16 points. Leron Lee added 14 points and Sam Cornell contributed 11 points.
The Comets will face off against district one champion Penn Wood, Saturday 3:30PM at Norristown high school.
Jr. Suarez is an average teenage student who walks down the halls of Penn Manor. There are just a few exceptions, he has quarter-sized ear holes, known as gauges and two lip piercings.
Although not entirely comonplace, these types of piercings are becoming more of a trend at Penn Manor. It is not unusual now for teens to sport all kind of piercings which, years earlier, may have been considered weird.
One student flaunts off their facial piercings. Photo by Steph Herr
Suarez doesn’t just have one gauge and one lip ring, he has two along with his statement: “two is always better than one.”
It took Suarez a minimum of four and a half months to go from an 18 gauge to a ¾-of-an-inch gauge. He now has ¾-inch gauges and double lip piercings known as snakebites.
Jr. says about his gauges “I wanted them since the seventh grade.”
Why would someone go through the pain of having a needle through their face or stretching of their ears?
“I got my eyebrow done because I want to be different and not a lot of girls have them,” said Genny Leonards, a junior at Penn Manor.
Ashley Rinehart sports her eyebrow ring. Photo by Steph Herr
Although Adrienne Herr, a senior, doesn’t have facial piercings, she has an opinion about people who do.
“At a first glance, facial piercings may seem scary but if you judge those who have piercings without getting to know them, then maybe you’re the one who needs to change,” said Herr.
Ear Stretching is the means by which one can gradually stretch their ear piercing. A normal pierced ear is a 18/20 gauge.The largest gauge to stretch to, without the capability of returning to the normal size, is a two gauge also considered the“point of no return” according to www.earstretching.net.
The correct way to stretch your ears is one gauge at a time (14-12, 12-10), the lower the number the larger the piercing, according to www.onetribe.nu.
If someone really wants to fix their ears from having an oversized hole they can have surgery but it shouldn’t be done until the deformity stops improving, according to www.arka-shop.co.uk.
One of the downsides of gauges is they stink.
Travis Healy said, “If you like moldy cheese then get gauges, because that’s what they smell like.”
A majority of facial piercings consist of nose, lip and eyebrow [most noticeable type of piercing.]
Work can be a problem when having facial piercings and gauges. Some work supervisors tell their workers that they will not accept any types of piercings.
Adrienne Herr said “The biggest downfall to facial piercings might only become evident later in life when students start their job search.”
Another downside is they can interfere with day-to-day activities like eating with a tongue piercing.
Genny Leonards said, “when I sleep, it [eyebrow piercing] sometimes gets caught on my pillow and becomes sore.”
Jack Gunzenhauser shows off his gauges. Photo by Steph Herr
Jack Gunzenhauser doesn’t see any end in sight for his gauges. He already has stretched his ear lobes close to an inch.
High school to most people is the time that you build relationships and make memories with the friends that mean the most, what better way to remember those times than by buying a class ring…or is it?
Some people think of a class ring as being something you can keep forever and look back on when you and your friends grow apart.
Some of the students at Penn Manor High School think differently about the idea of spending all that money on one class ring.
Class rings are available this year to seniors
Senior football and baseball player, Jared Shearer, commented that, “It’s not that memorable, I’m just going to get a yearbook since pictures mean more.”
“I’m just not a ring guy,” said Shearer.
As the economy worsens and times are getting harder, it’s obvious that students won’t be that interested in buying a class ring this year. They’ll save their spending money for things of their own interests.
Senior Erik Klugh said, “I’d much rather spend my money on a yearbook that has pictures of everyone and things I’ve done in high school rather than a piece of jewelry. Plus pictures mean more and can tell stories of my past…that’s something a ring can’t do.”
To some people a ring might be the perfect way to remember things; you can engrave your name on it, have sport symbols, and even your birth stone.
To senior Kenny Tomaszfski, a class ring is a good investment.
“It will always remind me of the times and memories I had at Penn Manor,” he said.
No matter what happens in school or in classes, in the halls and even at lunch, there is always something that can be turned into a memory. You can buy a class ring and have something to wear the rest of your life or you can get a year book with pictures to look back on. You will always be able to remember those times you shared with fellow students during your time in high school.
Everybody likes to kick back and enjoy the occasional bottle of pop but the next time you do, you might be getting popped a little more than you bargained for.
Senate leaders are considering putting a federal tax on the sweet and sugary drink we know as soda.
They say that the tax is to try and eliminate the sugary drink from people’s diet. Since these sugary drinks contribute to obesity. This tax is like the one put on tobacco products because tobacco causes so many medical problems.
These taxes are supposed to be used as a deterrent to people who consume these products.
Some Penn Manor students feel that this tax is not just.
“That’s [lame],” said senior Garth Bolin about the proposed tax on soda.
Even if there was a tax on soda would it stop students from drinking soda?
“Probably not,” added Bolin.
Even non-frequent drinkers of soda are opposed to this tax.
“I don’t really drink soda but that tax would be [stupid],” said sophomore Marc Summy.
Summy also wanted to know where this tax money would be going.
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, this tax money would be to help combat the cost of the national health care plan which may cost $1.2 trillion to implement.
Tax on soda sounds crazy but what’s next- tax on ice cream, pizza or candy?
While unhealthy and decadent treats are a detriment to our health, taxing soda because of its long term affects make it seem as if soda drinkers are comparable to tobacco users.
“Its ridiculous for them to compare tax on soda to tobacco tobacco kills people, soda never did that,” said sophomore Michael Andrusisin. “Also, if they put tax on diet soda that is messed up because that is trying [to get people] to be healthy.”
There are many questions about this proposed tax and for now not many answers.
But one thing is clear soda drinkers don’t want the tax.
The rising sun on July 10, 2009 marked the dawn of a new era for not only the Valentine family, but the entire Penn Manor community.
The death of Secretary Heather Valentine’s son, Cory, happened on that day. And, as the community gathered to provide any modest support they could provide, the question arose in many: how is it best to support someone who is grieving.
This community reached out quickly to the Valentine family.
“Penn Manor has been a very supportive community for our family,” said Valentine.
This poses the question: what are the dos and dont’s for comforting and grieving with your friends? With various attitudes about death, that’s no easy question to answer.
Penn Manor counselor Kimberly Marsh made it seem pretty straight-forth:
Do: understand that everyone handles things differently and to be there and listen
Do Not: change the subject when they talk about it, set a time for when you think they should be over it, or act as if you are their counselor.
Marsh also made it clear that: “They will probably never ‘get over it’ and they will have to deal with it day by day.”
And this is true with Valentine, “Cory’s never off my mind. He’s constantly on my mind. It will be with me the rest of my life.”
sometimes its hard to know how to help a friend who is grieving.
Senior Jenn Stumpf suffered two traumatic loses in her lifetime. Her brother was killed in 2004, her father in 2007. Her biggest help through all of the grieving: friends.
“The things that helped me the most were hanging out with friends every time that I could and staying on my daily routines. Not laying around and thinking about it all the time. It’s good to keep your mind off of the things the most you can,” said Stumpf.
Stumpf also provided some advice if you would ever find yourself in a similar situation, “I would tell them to keep their head up and stay positive. And reassure them that everything will be okay.”
Bri Delinger, Cory’s sister and a Penn Manor senior had additional advice.
“Be more compassionate,” she said. “I would appreciate if people would be more supportive… be conscious of feelings when they say certain things.”
To summarize, do not try and be the counselor, no matter how much you think you may know, you really do not have a clue. Every person handles a situation differently, while some refuse to handle the situation at all.
There is so much pain surrounding the death of a loved one, but the stories and memories shared are worth more than anything. As the old Irish proverb states, “Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal.”
